Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/242

 204 on the antlers of the elk to await his brothers, who, having missed him, now came to look for him, and were greatly surprised to find him sitting on the antlers of a recently killed elk. When questioned, he pretended ignorance of its presence there; but the second brother suspected that he knew more than he would tell, and was in no way surprised at events which befel later. Next day as they went on their way, they came to a large beaver pond. Said the eldest brother, as he saw the beavers: "How I would like some beaver-tail for supper to-night; there is nothing so delicious as beaver-tail." The little one said nothing; but presently, when the camp-ground had been chosen for the night, he strolled off by himself along the edge of the lake, and stooping down drank of the water till the lake was quite dry. He then took a stick and killed all the beavers one after another as they ran out of their holes, and piling them one on the top of the other sat down upon the topmost and awaited his brothers' presence. Seeing him seated on what appeared to them a tree stump they called to him to come to camp; but as he took no notice of them, they came to fetch him, and great indeed was their astonishment to see that what they had taken for a tree stump was a pile of freshly-killed beavers. "Now, brother," said he to the eldest, "you will be able to have beaver-tail for supper." The second one was now quite sure in his mind that his little brother possessed great "medicine," or power, and recalled to the elder one's memory the mysterious way their supper of the night before had been provided for them, as he endeavoured to persuade him of the same. But the elder brother laughed at the idea, and would not believe in this suddenly-acquired power of his little brother. The little one himself had offered no explanation of the beavers' presence, only requesting that his brothers should take out all the beavers' eyes for him and thread them on a cord. This they did, and he bound the string of eyes round his head and lay down to sleep. On the following morning the eldest brother arose early and waked the other two, but the little fellow declared that he was not ready to start yet. At this the eldest brother threatened to go on and leave him behind. "All right," replied the little one, "go on if you want to; I shall not come yet." The eldest brother did so, taking with him the second brother, who was very reluctant to leave his little brother, whom he had hitherto carried all the way on his shoulders, thus behind. He tried to persuade the other